Publications
Partners
Cape Town – BBC Worldwide is apologising to stunned viewers over the broadcasting glitch that led to the embarrassing failure of The Great South African Bake Off to start on BBC Lifestyle (DStv 174) as promised.
It's not yet clear exactly what the problem was and what caused it, but BBC Worldwide says the technical play-out team of the British broadcaster's commercial arm tried until the last moment before the start of the first episode at 20:00 on BBC Lifestyle to rectify the glitch.
Viewers who tuned in hoping to see The Great South African Bake Off produced by Rapid Blue with Anne Hirsch and Donovan Goliath as presenters, instead got an old episode of the British version, sprinkled with commercials from Mugg & Bean and Snowflake touting the "too fresh to flop" local version.
"The final decision not to go to air was made less than half an hour before airtime," says BBC Worldwide, saying "it tried to rectify the glitch until the last moment."
"Due to recent upgrades to the content delivery system, the first episode of The Great South African Bake Off was not processed as it should have been, which resulted in the first episode not going to air. We appreciate how disappointing this is for our viewers and sincerely apologise."
Episode 1 of The Great South African Bake Off will now be shown on Thursday, 8th October at 20:00 on DStv channel 174.
Episode 2 will continue in the usual Tuesday night 20:00 timeslot next week, 13 October. All other episodes in the series will be broadcast on Tuesdays at 20:00.
This first episode will also be repeated on Saturday 10 October at 12:15, Sunday 11 October at 15:00 and on Monday 12 October at 20:55.
